In the NYT...

One of Washington’s leading conservative constitutional lawyers publicly broke on Sunday with the main Republican argument against convicting former President Donald J. Trump in his impeachment trial, asserting that an ex-president can indeed be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors.

In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal’s website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former president.

Since the rampage, Republicans have made little effort to excuse Mr. Trump’s conduct, but have coalesced behind the legal argument about constitutionality as their rationale for why he should not be tried, much less convicted. Their theory is that because the Constitution’s penalty for an impeachment conviction is removal from office, it was never intended to apply to a former president, who is no longer in office.

Mr. Cooper said they were misreading the Constitution.

“The provision cuts against their interpretation,” he wrote. He argued that because the Constitution allows the Senate to bar officials convicted of impeachable offenses from holding public office again in the future, “it defies logic to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from trying and convicting former officeholders.”

Mila hit the wall.

It hurts to see it typed out that way, but you know it's true.

I have a question. If a person is impeached and then barred from federal office, why is Alcee Hastings in Congress?

If a person is impeached and then barred from federal office, why is Alcee Hastings in Congress? ~ I R A Darth Aggie at February 8, 2021 7:32 AM

In 1988, US District Judge Alcee Hastings was impeached for bribery and perjury by the House in a 413-3 vote and convicted by the Senate on 8 of the 11 articles by a 69-26 vote.

In its conviction, the Senate did not preclude Hastings from ever holding a public office again. As such, he was able to run for office. In 1990, he ran and lost an election for Florida Secretary of State. He later won a House seat for Florida's 23rd district in 1992.

Hastings claims his impeachment was illegitimate because he was tried in committee, not in the full Senate, and he was acquitted in his criminal trial on the same charges - bribery and perjury. The judge in his impeachment conviction appeal agreed, but bowed to the SCOTUS precedent in the Walter Nixon case.

Mila hit the wall. ~ Crid at February 8, 2021 6:59 AM

I thought she looked an awful lot like Demi Moore - which is kinda creepy, in a way.

> she looked an awful
> lot like Demi

Woo-hoo! Good eye, Coney!

And now that you mention it, Mila looks exactly like Demi looked at the time she hit the wall, too. Some people think each of us has a "type."

Someone once pointed out that Tom Cruise married each of his three wives in the same year of their lives, and divorced them in the same year as well.

It's one of those things that make you think that show business success involves some sort of nuanced psychology or incomprehensible voodoo.

Attractive photographs.

(Years ago I went to Jellyfish Lake!)

A statistical paradox for skin color.